Chapter 108-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
Tang Mingxi opened the manga app right on time.
In the previous chapter, Percy hesitated over heading to the West District to rescue Lucy, which led to a public backlash. Tang Mingxi had a great time watching the drama and even fanned the flames a bit. She also enjoyed Ye Zheng's side story—it was so satisfying. If only the main storyline featured more of Ye Zheng's scenes, it would be even better.
Ye Zheng's popularity had been skyrocketing, but the amount of Zheng content in each update was still disappointingly low. There were plenty of spots where the creator could have delved deeper into her actions and thoughts, but they stubbornly refused—unless it was a scene where Ye Zheng absolutely had to appear.
Other characters' fans assumed Ye Zheng had a strong presence simply because she turned every rare appearance into a killing part, delivering massive impact to the readers.
Tang Mingxi sighed. Us Zheng stans were probably the most mild-mannered group in the *King of the Demonic Domain* reader community. The official side was clearly nerfing Zheng to prevent her from blowing up too much. If this kind of unfair treatment happened to a top idol, there'd be at least two protest trucks parked outside the company's building, maybe even funeral wreaths laid out.
But right now, us Zheng stans were just trash-talking the creator and rival fans on social platforms. Our tempers were already as good as they could get.
Clutching her hopes for a plot packed with ultra-high Zheng content, Tang Mingxi tapped into the latest chapter.
As soon as it loaded, Sykes's full-face shot slammed right up close. Tang Mingxi pulled her phone back a bit, mildly disgusted.
Lately, the number of people shipping Sykes and Ye Zheng had inexplicably spiked. Why couldn't she escape the curse of a sudden ugly brother-in-law even after stanning a female paper character!
At least this was just readers shipping on their own. Ye Zheng clearly had no room for men in her heart—she was the type to draw her sword with effortless grace.
In the manga, the golden-haired crown prince stood atop the city walls, delivering a solemn speech with a straight face. The comments had already piled up over a hundred.
[What a magnificent face!]
[Fam, I can't even roast it—this guy's the real king...]
[Sykes, king among kings, alpha among alphas!]
[Has no one noticed how well-spoken Sykes is? Beyond being a 3S-rank powerhouse, as crown prince, he's top-notch in every aspect. Everyone's always overlooked that.]
[Uh, what if the speech wasn't even written by him? He doesn't strike me as the type who could come up with those words.]
[Some people in the comments are hating on Sykes too hard. If he didn't write it, does that mean you did?]
After Sykes finished his speech, the panel shifted. The saintess stood not far behind him, quietly taking it all in.
The crown prince turned, looking a bit weary as he said, "Let's go." Ye Zheng smiled and nodded, following in his footsteps.
At first, Tang Mingxi thought Ye Zheng was just dragged out by her uncle to serve as background filler. But the next part dove into Sykes's flashback, and Ye Zheng actually showed up in it too.
Turns out, under Ye Zheng's treatment, Sykes had recovered a fragment of his lost memories. This time, his decision to head to the West District was to reclaim his buried past—not out of the noble reasons scripted in the speech Ye Zheng wrote for him.
Wait, that speech the Sy stans were just praising was written by Ye Zheng? Tang Mingxi immediately reopened the comments she'd closed.
[Hoo boy, I can't stop laughing. We all said Sykes couldn't write stuff like that, and you guys didn't believe us.]
[Someone please rein in the plot? Another male character's highlight moment quietly pinned onto Ye Zheng...]
["Some people shouldn't hate Sykes too much"—I think it's "don't hate Ye Zheng too much" that fits.]
[How hilarious. Turns out Sy stans are the ones who know Sykes the least.]
Though the comments were laced with a few passive-aggressive jabs at Ye Zheng, Tang Mingxi still had a blast. Sykes was just this useless in front of her girl.
But the plot that followed wiped the smile off her face.
The group entered the West District and went through a series of eerie events before Ye Zheng and Sykes ran into Percy inside the grand cathedral in the West District. A mumbling, crazily intense old man with a heavy patriarchal vibe locked the three of them in a sealed space, forcing them to fumble around for a way out in that tiny room.
This segment made Tang Mingxi's heart skip a beat. The creator was selling three pairs of CP in one small room—the forums were going to explode over the ships.
"Lucy said she'd invite us all to her hometown as guests."
"I promised her. I never break my word."
On the phone screen, the firelight cast a warm glow on her features, making the girl look like a soft, comforting cloud. Yet it triggered Percy's recollection of the terror once dominated by the "Glorious Oath," leaving him shaken by the kind yet terrifying saintess deep in his heart.
The final panel showed the three successfully returning to the surface, with Ye Zheng stepping alone into the thick fog, leaving readers with nothing but her resolute back view.
Honestly, this chapter had a hefty plot load—plenty of new characters appeared, Percy and Sykes seemed mysteriously tied to the experiments in the West District, and Ye Zheng appeared to have her own agenda.
But based on her experience, what most readers cared about wasn't the plot, but the CP wars. The forums bickered over that all the time. Though as a toxic solo Ye Zheng stan, Tang Mingxi didn't give a damn about the main storyline or CPs, Ye Zheng kept getting dragged into these weird debates, so she had no choice but to pay attention.
After screenshotting every single Ye Zheng scene from the new chapter, Tang Mingxi switched gears and started patrolling the forums.
As expected, the top hot post was CP-related.
[#1: One room, two orientations, three CP pairs sold—let's salute the legendary manga *King of the Demonic Domain*!]
[#2: The old uncle dared to sell it, but I don't even dare look. Everyone, make sure to fight it out!]
[#3: Shoving the top three most popular characters—who feud all the time—into a sealed space. The old uncle must be scared we won't start swinging.]
[#4: SySy | PerSy, stably holding the empire status since early serialization; PerMei, the dark horse that once challenged for empire but collapsed midway, though its lingering power remains; PerZheng, suspected official hetero lead pair; SyZheng, your BG empire in the uncanny—now, fellow debaters, enter the arena: which one got sold the hardest in the new plot?]
[#5: Where does SyZheng get its cult following? The best BG ship in the uncanny is actually ZhaoLu— the most mutual rush pair, and this new plot even has after-sales service.]
[#6: Wake up, ZhaoLu sis. Your PerMei is done for—BG turned GL, and like that other PerMei, it's deader than dead, super secure.]
[#7: Oh man, who's gonna care for us yuri fans? YeLu is the one sold hardest this time, but no one's paying attention.]
[#8: Ye Zheng, in those thirty seconds you locked eyes with Percy, were you worried about the dark, Percy's vulnerable side peeking through, or the missing Lucy?]
[#9: I'm done. Is Percy straight or what that you're shipping this? This time it's clearly Percy's and Sykes's main stage—begging certain big female lead stans not to break up the little couple. Tutorial pls!]
[#10: Our empire sis is too lazy to fight. In the new chapter, the bond between Percy and Sykes isn't something anyone can wedge into—tie it with their flashback snippets, they grew up together in the lab. The gold content of childhood sweethearts from the sky crushes everything.]
[#11: This round really gave us PerSy sisses something to chew on. If only a certain someone wasn't there, it'd be perfect. Can I say that? She really feels out of place in it...]
[#12: Agreed. Ye Zheng had zero reason to get locked in the little black room with PerSy. The old uncle's sneaking in private goods to shoehorn playtime for that certain big female lead again.]
[#13: The screentime has to be borrowed, the breakout was all thanks to Percy and Sykes, and the fans have to hype up the most fleshed-out female character. That's how we thrive in the beef.]
[#14: Fellow lords, come feast on the pure PerSy little black room plot! (attached image)]
[#15: Aren't you guys embarrassed? Photoshopping Ye Zheng out leaves this huge ugly patch of background color in the middle—doesn't that make her presence even stronger?]
[#16: Lmao, so similar. PerSy sisses say they don't care, too lazy to fight, but deep down they're obsessed to death—not even able to tolerate Ye Zheng's existence.]
Tang Mingxi couldn't resist clicking into the attached image from #14—a long strip where every frame with Ye Zheng had been edited out, leaving only Percy and Sykes.
[#17: #14, warn for ghost images next time? Frames without Ye Zheng are ugly enough to scare people.]
Tang Mingxi stared at the string of passive-aggressive digs above. It was none of her business if they wanted to ship the two guys, but what was with the nonstop dragging of her girl? Would any of us Zheng fans settle for those two mangos as brother-in-laws for our sis?
[#18: Ye Zheng's one and only official match is Little Steam. Keep your male treasures on a leash—don't come bumping into us.]
[#19: Dying of laughter. Our Little Steam finally has a presence on the forums too.]
It was only this week that Tang Mingxi learned about it—Li Yixin said she'd stumbled upon a Ye Zheng-related yumejo bot called [Steam Empire] on Big-Eye Platform and immediately recommended it to her, a diehard Zheng stan.
"Steam" was a pun on "Zheng wife." Though it was a yumejo bot with only about a thousand followers and not many submissions, it accepted all Ye Zheng personal prompts. The rules were simple: no crossovers with other characters, and no male followers allowed.
Tang Mingxi was mainly a career stan for Ye Zheng, occasionally dipping into mom fan territory, but compared to toxic cross-shipping with male characters, shipping Ye Zheng with herself was way better! Wasn't that more real than some PerZheng or SyZheng nonsense?
The OP's shot quickly drew a swarm, with floors piling up fast.
[#162: Anyone calling Ye Zheng useless—did you even read the plot? She's clearly the one steering the rhythm. Some people even need our girl to ghostwrite their speeches. Without Ye Zheng, Percy and Sykes might've rotted in that little black room for days.]
[#163: Upstairs, don't let the PerSy sisses get off on that. They'd love for those two male treasures to stay locked up forever.]
[#164: Btw, why PerSy? Aren't gongs usually outnumbered by shous in fics?]
[#165: Answer: It started with more SyPer shippers, until the official setting book revealed Percy is three centimeters taller than Sykes.]
[#166: Actually, the two-male stans are the biggest supporters of Ye Zheng as the big female lead. They don't care if PerSy gets out or not—only if Ye Zheng does. They even Photoshopped her leaving, with PerSy trapped in the little black room on an if line. So our Zheng just steps in to shoulder the glorious duties for them...]
[#167: Ah, no need for Zheng stans to bash Percy and Sykes like that—they care about Ye Zheng too. The trio synced up great this time; no need for the houses to beef so hard.]
[#168: Us SyZheng shippers don't even dare chime in. Getting bullied by PerSy sisses on one side, cursed out by Ye Zheng solo stans on the other—BG sisses are just second-class citizens now.]
[#169: Is it really BG sisses or G-not-pronounced crooked-ass male stans? We Zheng stans know the score.]
[#170: Skip the BG shipping and come ship our PerMei—immortal BG who says no to immortality! (attached fake image of Zhao Mei and Ye Zheng framed together)]
[#171: ZhaoLu turning YeLu, the constant is her loving her. Let our yuri couples compete too, pls?]
[#171: How about this: Ye Zheng hetero on odd days, homo on even, narcissistic on Sundays—who'd still complain?]
[#172: Fact is, this woman's an absolute career brain. Thinking of her busting her ass on major moves, only to turn around and see a bunch fighting over who she pairs with, who she doesn't—no wonder paper characters can't log into forums...]
Tang Mingxi paused at #172, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt. She called herself a career stan, but she was totally foggy on Ye Zheng's career stuff. She barely paid attention to the plot, since it was overloaded with male characters she didn't like.
[#182: Zheng stans, head over to the neighboring Ye Zheng plot analysis thread. Read that and see who still dares say the new plot is Percy's and Sykes's main stage? The real shadow protagonist is here!]
[#183: Just came back from next door—that post analyzes Ye Zheng way too darkly, right? Makes it seem like she's secretly puppeteering Percy and Sykes. Feels like all three are OOC...]
[#184: Y'all forgot Ye Zheng's past feats that fast? Still daring to ship her CPs? I'm scared you'll ship one, and she'll dump on you for it.]
[#185: Us SyZheng sisses are just that stubborn. Worst case, Ye Zheng transitions again—what other major red flag could there be?]
Tang Mingxi felt a deep urge to bone up on her girl's career, or her comebacks would come off shallow and surface-level. So she hopped over to the neighboring plot analysis thread.
Author's Note:
Already stuffed myself silly on Zhengzheng cake.
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